Only around 10 percent of vehicles made in North American now have manual transmissions, down from 35 percent in 1980, according to the Associated Press. Rich PedroncelliAP

Only around 10 percent of vehicles made in North American now have manual transmissions, down from 35 percent in 1980, according to the Associated Press. Rich PedroncelliAP

On their second attempted carjacking Wednesday, two teenage boys came face to face with the most frightful and insurmountable of obstacles, according to police.

A manual transmission.

Moments earlier, the 15-year-old and 17-year-old had taken the car keys from a woman walking through a parking lot to a Kroger grocery store in Nashville, Tennessee, police said in a press release on Thursday. Then the teenagers hopped in her car.

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But a few seconds later, the pair apparently realized the car had a stick shift, meaning they weren’t going to be able to drive off with it, according to Nashville police.

So the pair did what those who are unable to drive stick have done since the dawn of the automatic transmission — they ran away from the daunting vehicle, police said.

You can hardly blame the teenage suspects for expecting an automatic transmission: Edmunds, a car-shopping website, has found that vehicles with manual transmissions account for less than 3 percent of U.S. car sales right now, The Associated Press reports.

Officers in the area arrested the two teenage suspects soon after, according to police. Their names have not been released.